[WikiEN-l] Proposal: limited extension of semi-protection policy

[Jimmy Wales]

Semi-protection seems to be a great success in many cases.  I think that
it should be extended, but carefully, in a couple of key ways.

1.  It seems that some very high profile articles like [[George W.
Bush]] are destined to be semi-protected all the time or nearly all the
time.  I support continued occassional experimention by anyone who wants
to take the responsibility of guarding it, but it seems likely to me
that we will keep such articles semi-protected almost continuously.

If that is true, then the template at the time is misleading and scary
and distracting to readers.  I propose that we eliminate the requirement
that semi-protected articles have to announce themselves as such to the
general public.  They can be categorized as necessary, of course, so
that editors who take an interest in making sure things are not
excessively semi-protected can do so, but there seems to me to be little
benefit in announcing it to the entire world in such a confusing fashion.

2.  A great many minor bios of slightly well known but controversial
individuals are subject to POV pushing trolling, including vandalism,
and it seems likely that in such cases, not enough people have these on
their personal watchlists to police them as well as we would like.
Semi-protection would at least eliminate the drive-by nonsense that we
see so often.

------------

The basic concept here is that semi-protection has proven to be a
valuable tool, with very broad community support, which gives good
editors more time to deal with serious issues because there is less
random vandalism.  Because the threshold to editing is still quite low
for anyone who seriously wants to join the dialogue in an adult, NPOV,
responsible manner, I do not find any reason to hold back on some
extended use of it.

Be glad, if my proposal worries you, that I am not proposing that we
automatically semi-protect all living bios. :)


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